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Posted 2 years ago
aboutintime
(8 items)
This is my favorite item of all time..... I purchased this 30" doll many years ago from a auction....He is a composition doll (head,half arms with hands) cloth body,arms and legs, he has electric lightbulbs for eyes. wearing a military shirt,pants and hat, old shoes and weird silk fabric wraps on his lower legs. stuffed with excelsior
brass buttons, two cross guns gold pin on his collar.............the most unique thing about this doll is he came with a vintage wartime flag pouch with a cardboard photo of the soldier wearing the same clothes, old love letters-with original stamps and envelopes on 324th U.S. INFANTRY CAMP JACKSON,S.C. dated 1918 as well as YMCA 1918. they were sent to a woman in Ohio....
I recently took the doll to a Antique appraiser and she has never seen one like this, she thought it could have been made for the Army office as a store display. She thought at auction it could go as high as $10,000 due to never seeing one before....
if there is anyone out there that can help i would really appreciate it!!!!
HELP!!!!!
Composition DollsPrior to the use of composition as a doll-making material, most dolls had h…
World War OneWorld War I coincided with numerous advances in technology, resulting in th…
I would say he was altered by a soldier. I can't beyond the buttons in the eyes. haha. It's interesting there is no doubt about that. It might be more desirable to a collector of military items. Totally clueless.
Thanks!!!!!
How about a picture of the entire ribbon. Genegantslet is a small town in central NY state. What/who is on the pin?
wow I have never seen a doll like this defintely a wonderful discuccion piece
Hello.
Your wonderful young gent in his military finery might be a production line doll altered to his present appearance.
I met such a doll, similar in appearance to yours, while living in Colorado. In 1972-1973, I lived in South Park while curator of the 30 building open-air South Park City Museum in Fairplay, Colorado. Fairplay is the County seat of Park County, most of which is above 10,000 feet in the Rockies. An elderly woman in town operated a small gift shop at the foot of Front Street, about a quarter mile down from the museum.
Most of her gifts were Victorian handcrafts, crocheted collars, cuffs, silk flowers, etc., that she made while talking with customers. On a stool in her parlor sat a similar doll. If I remember correctly, her aunt had purchased a fine composition boy, who came dressed in little boy clothes of about 1915. When her husband went off to war in Europe, she created an American infantry uniform for the doll to comfort their children, something to play with while thinking about their missing dad. Fortunately he returned from the war, so the story has a happy ending, although by the time I met her, she had outlived everyone else in the family. She died the summer after I left town, so I do not know what happened to the doll. I hope some collector gave it the home it deserved.
Of course, it is entirely possible that your example was some sort of limited production doll sold by a fine toy or department store.
By the way, the real South Park is every bit as odd as the cartoon. Good luck with your search.
A altered doll and would never command 10K But he is interesting to military people . He is a common Composition doll made after 1918 . He should have a raised name on back of his neck ? Beautiful piece of military history . But doll collectors would like only as a novelity and not pay a lot . He is a keeper and unusal and carries alot of history in hos clothes and what he holds in his hands
Thanks for sharing
I have to recend my statement . It was made this way and has a opening in body for battery for eyes to light up . This Comp/cloth doll was made during and after WWI . This was confirmed by a national doll expert . But not worth 10K and he has seen it before .
Elektra carnival doll. Though the electric eyes were rare because they were offered as prizes around Halloween, they are far from valuing at 10 grand. I WISH that were so because I have the female counterpart Elektra Coquette with light up eyes.
the light up eyes are not an owner alteration. They came from Elektra manufacturing company that way .....*Elektra* .....get it? anyway, there are 2 small holes in the back of the neck for the positive and negative wires to feed through and connect to one of those big, old-fashioned batteries with coil springs on the top. The doll is definitely valuable, I would love to buy him myself. He is in great condition and his clothes are intact and wonderful. Unfortunately in the economic times we are currently experiencing, you would likely have to accept half his value if you wanted to sell him.....about 350 best.